WELLBEING Summer

Remember Your Spf

With the arrival of summer comes swimsuit season and some well deserved time at the beach. It’s also the time we are at most danger to excessive amounts of sun exposure. So it’s important to lather up with at least SPF 30, even better 50, to make sure you are safe from harmful UV rays. Don’t forget to reapply every 2 hours.

Stay Hydrated

It’s important to drink lots of water, at least 9 glasses a day, in the summer months. Try adding fruit and cucumber to add variety to your water.

Eat Seasonally

A great way to shake up any meal of the day is to mix in fruits and vegetables of summer. Eat more cooling meals, such as salads, to combat the increasing heat and choose fresh juices and water over energy and soft drinks.

Stay Active

Summer is the time where you start to slow down with the increase in temperature but it’s especially important time to stay fit. Try healthy activities to help you feel refreshed and awake such as swimming or biking, just don’t forget your water and sunscreen.

Drink Responsibly

Having an alcoholic drink in summer is irresistible. However, it’s important to remember that alcohol fails to provide any hydration to your body and causes the body to dehydrate at a faster rate. Remember to consume in moderation and sip on water between drinks.

Get Outdoors With The Family

Get the kids off the video games and iPads and get them outside in the sunshine. Take them on a family trip to the beach; don’t forget to bring a spade and bucket to make an epic sandcastle. Or enjoy a bike ride along Manly’s boardwalk. Whatever you’re doing, get moving and get outside! • words by: shannan ponton

There’s such a positive communal buzz around eco friendship and sustainability, it’s hard not to get swept up in something bigger than yourself. I love, that on the Northern Beaches, we still believe in positive people power.

Sustainability is the ability to exist constantly. It’s a pretty broad and binding term. Unfortunately I see and hear that term being constantly regurgitated in conversation around diet and nutrition. “Don’t undertake that diet, it’s unsustainable,” or “I’ve tried everything to lose weight, but they were all…” you guessed it, “unsustainable”.

Most fad diets are very onerous and sticking to them takes preparation, sacrifice and discipline. Those three traits alone make it near impossible to stick to, for even the most determined of us. Add to that a lack of results, unsettle with a yo-yo weight loss, weight gain syndrome, throw in a whole heap of pseudoscience, a pinch of social media hype, a few drops of misinformation and the weight loss recipe becomes confusing and downright disheartening!

Fear not, for with this special, controversial, personal insight, I’m giving you permission to live your life... unsustainably!

Okay, honesty time. Who’s been sucked into fad dieting? Be it successful, or for most of us, not so much. Truthfully?!

Counting calories is the one scientifically proven way to lose weight for every human body. It also takes planning, discipline and sacrifice but of course, its saving grace is that it will deliver results every time. If you want to lose weight and improve your health and fitness, do yourself a favour and count calories. Every time I receive change from a financial transaction, I count it. Not because I’m tight, but so I know that I’m actually getting back what’s mine. I worked hard for that money. Counting calories is exactly the same in a nutritional sense. You know you’ll get the results back from the hard work you’ve put in.

My way of thinking attracts a fair bit of criticism from detractors and so called experts, as being… you guessed again… unsustainable!

In essence, those detractors are 100% correct but nothing we do “exists constantly”. If you’re fired up and want to lose weight for a special occasion, a wedding, school reunion or even a midlife crisis, go get it. If your motivation is strong, make the most of it, get some inspirational results whilst the iron is hot.

To lose weight: I recommend eating a diet that is higher protein, lower carb, lower fat, less processed and good for you. Restrict total quality calories to 1200-1400. Train at a moderate intensity, consistently and you’ll be blown away at how much you can change. This method will deliver weight loss results and get you ‘in shape’, every time.

Once you hit your target, continue to eat well and move often. If your weight creeps back on, don’t be disheartened or disappointed, address it and go back to what you know works.

In my mind and professional experience, this is a perfectly natural healthy way to live unsustainably. It’s the flow of life. Don’t try to be perfect, it’s impossible and unsustainable; rather, ride the wave of your life.

If life gets in the way, weight creeps back on and you start to feel unhealthy and uncomfortable, rip back in and make the changes you need to feel great again.

Nothing in our world is forever, anymore. When a change becomes important to you, identify your goal, commit to achieving it, set yourself free from external influences and hype, do the work and enjoy the process. If it works, repeat as necessary.

These holidays, don’t try to be perfect, enjoy things your way, encompassing what’s important to you. If weight or health do become an issue for you, address them before they become insurmountable. Commit, make the sacrifices and do the work that you need to feel well. No longer can you cop out and dismiss the things you want under the guise of being unsustainable. • www.shannanponton.com.au | email: harduppt@hotmail.com | shannanponton